Public Foot The Roman – Public Foot The Roman(1973)

Biography
An obscure and long forgotten progressive rock band from the UK, Public Foot The Roman nevertheless were popular enough to released one self titled album in 1973 in both the UK and USA. (Sovereign Records in the UK, Capitol in the USA). In addition they were often seen playing at colleges and were featured on the more outward looking radio shows of the time. The band did have some line up changes but the best known was Dag Small (keyboards and vocals), the enigmatically named Ward (bass guitar), Sean Byrne (vocals and guitar) who came from the American band Count Five, who had a hit in the US with the single Psychotic Reaction, Greg Knowles (guitar) and Jamie Lane (drums and vocals). The group eventually transormed itself into The Movies who developed Public Foot The Roman’s art rock tendenacies and were almost on the verge of a breakthrough when Punk Rock changed the musical climate and killed any chances of success. http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=1332

Album & Cover
This was the only album released by Public Foot The Roman. Sean Byrne wrote all the songs and sang lead on a number of them.

The name derives from one half of a pedestrian sign. The cover for this album was taken in Chelsea’s football ground Stamford Bridge, with a group of people pointing and watching what seems to be a UFO. Hipgnosis were fascinated with sci-fi, and used it to great effect on other album covers… but does it have any relevance to the band?

Cover Location: Chelsea Football Stadium, Stamford Bridge, London, UK
Who Did What: Photography – A. Powell/S. Thorgerson
Label: Capitol ST-11215(US), Sovereign SVNA 7259(UK)
Source: Vinyl. Album. Cover. Art, The Complete Hipgnosis Catalogue: Aubrey Powell

Tracklist

Credits
Bass – Word
Drums – Jamie Lane
Engineer – George Sloan, Richard Plant
Guitar – Greg Knowles, Sean Byrne
Keyboards – Dag Small
Producer – Derek Lawrence
Vocals – Dag, Jamie, Sean
Written-By – Sean Byrne